Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? aerating with YP in mind

Any thoughts on the idea of aerating one end of a pond (this pond was built in two parts-joined when second digging occurred), each end of the pond has
it's own bottom, that is each has a deep spot.

My thoughts are to aerate one end allowing the other end to have cooler water in it's deep part for YP. Mainly thinking of this because of the really HOT
weather we had this year, and if occurs next year will this help?

Radon thoughts! You know how dangerous they can be-thanks for any input!

How deep is "deep"?

I have aerated a 12' deep (when dug) YP pond in Central Ohio all Summer long for 15 years, with no apparent problems. This year I've been running 16 hours a day, on average.

IMO you'll be fine to aerate the whole pond in Pure Michigan.

Funky,
My pond is max 10' deep at full pool and most of the time in the summer it is 9' and occasionally 8' when the water table drops. My aerator is right in the middle but is off the ground on a tote by another 10" or so. I aerate from about 9pm to 7am through most of summer in order to try to COOL down the water (lots of reasons but it helps that more oxygen can be stored in water the cooler it gets) Then when it starts getting cold in the fall I switch to daytime aeration to try to preserve the warmth which allows a little more time for surface feeding as I use up my pellets for the year.

Aeration isn't a must when water is cool (at least half the year where you live) and our ponds are probably not large enough or deep enough to have a large body of water below a thermocline that could develop buildup of sulfide and other gasses. Wind action probably would already keep your dissolved O2 at levels to avoid fish kill.

As Snipe asks How deep is each bowl section? and
How wide of a isthmus separates the two bowl sections?
Does aerating one bowl have much influence on the other bowl's bottom basin?

CC, do you have a thermometer? If so, would you be willing to do a test for me?

Take the water temp now with you only aerating at night to keep the pond cool. Then for the next few days aerate 24/7 and re-take the pond water temp at the same place at the same time of the day. Report your findings.

esshup, at what depth are you thinking of doing temp readings? I have a maple syrup thermometer but cannot immerse it. I guess that means I could get temps down to about 8" deep.

This time of year we don't have hot days anymore so I probably don't need aeration at all.

Last time I did calculation of how much the air bubbles lifted water and how deep my system was and what its CFM of air was it came out that I was just about at turning over my whole pond in 24 or 26 hours if I recall correctly.

But even if I'm turning over the whole pond, I still notice that there is definitely colder water deeper than say 5 feet (just by how cold it is when wading in to do maintenance)

One cheap, time consuming way to manually get water temps from deep water using a maple syrup thermometer is to sink a small glass maple syrup bottle with ring handle to the bottom or desired depth. Let it sit there for probably at least 30 min to 1 hr... Quickly Raise the bottle and measure water temp in the bottle.

The Mrs. Butterworth method.

about 12 feet at center of bottom

Bill Cody- one bowl is 28 feet deep but only at that spot like a hole the other is about 12 feet and covers a larger area about 40 x40, there is a sand bar between each with about 3-4 feet of water over it so one really does not much effect the other

At the depth where you are trying to keep the pond "cool"?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/TRIPLETT/5013535813

Here is a wired indoor/outdoor thermometer that has a 4.8' long wired lead.

I just use a cheap swimming pool thermometer for my water temperatures at any depth.

It seems pretty accurate to me, and I really just need repeatability, not absolute accuracy.

(Of course, I don't have tens of thousands of dollars of fish on the line.)

I will do something similar. I just got my electric bill after 24/7 aerating for several weeks, and I was a bit surprised at the cost. Also, the power company here (DTE) instituted premium rates between 3pm and 7pm. So, I will dial back the aeration to 12 hours a day (nighttime) and see how it goes.

I will report back on the temps, before and after.

The hardest part of finding a suitable thermometer is the cord length. I bought this cheap Chinese thermometer on Amazon. 10m cord. I marked the cord in 1 ft increments.

I compared the readings to a couple other thermometers I have, including a pretty nice stream thermometer for fly fishing. All thermometers were consistent over a wide range of temperatures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096K1Z58S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If your electricity provider charges higher rates during the traditional peak usage periods (usually around 3PM - 9PM), then I would definitely recommend turning off all non-essential electrical equipment during that time. There are plenty of other pond improvements that can be accomplished with that money!

That same period should be peak oxygen for your pond naturally, anyway.

I'd suggest that photoperiod has a much bigger influence on water temps this time of year compared to aeration.
We're losing several minutes of light every day. Less light on the water = less energy added to the water = cooler water.

During the hot part of the year I run the air pump from midnight to 7:00am. When September gets here I start shifting
the run time to daylight hours. I'm running 2:00am-9:00am now. I'll move it an hour per week until it's only running
during daylight hours, then move the diffuser up shallow around the end of October and run it 24/7 all winter.

Anecdotally, two weeks ago surface temps here were in the mid 80°s. This morning the surface temp is 73.8°.
It was more comfortable for human swimmers two weeks ago. I expect the fish are liking it more now.

I get the part about aerating only at night during the summer. There is no photosynthesis at night, and you don't want to mix in hot surface water by aerating during the day.

However, I don't quite understand aerating only during daylight hours during Autumn (and Spring I assume). Is it to maintain warmth in the pond by mixing in warmer surface water? Can you explain?